Supervisor urges group to send storm-victim donations

Jan. 18, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Orange County Board of Supervisor Janet Nguyen is encouraging Vietnamese American leaders to send donations collected for Hurricane Sandy victims now, rather than wait until next month. COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

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Bishop Van Thanh Tran of the Vietnamese Interfaith Council in America during a press conference in Westminster on Wednesday night. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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At Wednesday night's news conference in Westminster, Bishop Van Thanh Tran assured the attendants that money raised for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts will be donated to a New York fund. STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

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The Venerable Thich Quang Thanh poses at Chua Bao Quang temple in Santa Ana he designed and opened in 2002. Quang Thanh raised questions this week about the whereabouts of $27,000 collected by members of two Buddhist temples for the victims of Hurricane Sandy back East. The money was accidentally deposited into a local account. He said he wants the money to be forwarded to New York immediately. CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Orange County Board of Supervisor Janet Nguyen is encouraging Vietnamese American leaders to send donations collected for Hurricane Sandy victims now, rather than wait until next month.COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen wrote a Vietnamese American nonprofit that it is "imperative" the organization immediately forward to New York about $200,000 in donations to aid superstorm Sandy victims.

In a letter Friday, Nguyen urged the Orange County-based Vietnamese Interfaith Council in America to take several steps "for purposes of transparency and in order to clear up any allegations": send a check via certified mail, produce an itemized report of all donations collected and/or pledged, and produce bank statements showing the balance before and after the deposit of donations.

"The funds are needed immediately to help the victims rebuild their lives, homes and communities," Nguyen wrote Bishop Van Thanh Tran, president of the Interfaith Council.

Neil Nguyen, vice president of the Interfaith Council, said Friday that it is up to his group to decide when and how the money is delivered.

It's not just about sending donations, Nguyen said. It's about personally meeting with the people of New York and the Sandy victims to share with them their own experiences of fleeing their homeland and how this country has helped them, he said.

"This is a way we pay back America with all our heart," Nguyen said.

Hurricane victims also are on the verge of receiving a $51 billion infusion of aid, approved this week by the House of Representatives and heading next to the Senate for a vote. The money raised locally is small amount by comparison – "a piece of salt in the oceans of love we send to the Sandy victims," Neil Nguyen said.

Earlier this month, Nguyen and others told the Westminster City Council they had raised $200,000 for the hurricane relief efforts in just a month. They cited the figure as proof they could quickly raise $60,000 to pay for the Tet Parade scheduled for Feb. 10. The council agreed to a special-events permit on the contingency they raise the money by Jan. 24.

This week, two Buddhist leaders raised concerns about the whereabouts of $27,000 they had raised for the hurricane victims, and they contacted Supervisor Nguyen.

Vietnamese American leaders addressed those concerns, explained their accounting process and said they had collected a total of $169,000, with more donations pending.

Community members now question why the donated amount has decreased from $200,000 to $169,000, the supervisor said.

"One of the reasons I'm sending the letter is people are still questioning why can't they send the money they have and what happened to the difference," Nguyen said in an interview.

Interfaith Council representatives explained they have about $169,000 in cash and the rest are pledges from across the country that have yet to come in or are credit card pledges that take longer to process.

Neil Nguyen and other leaders said that the Tet Parade and Hurricane Sandy fundraising efforts are not connected, addressing rumors in the community that Sandy money was being used for the Tet Parade.

"Absolutely not," Neil Nguyen said again Friday. Donations to the Tet Parade increased to $36,150 as of Friday morning, with an additional $10,000 expected from 200 requests pending for $50 raffle tickets for the lottery of a new car, he said.

"We will sell all 1,200 raffle tickets," said Nguyen, who expressed confidence the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California and other groups will raise the $60,000 by the deadline Thursday

The Chua Bao Quang Temple in Santa Ana and the Lien Hoa Temple in Garden Grove contacted Supervisor Nguyen, saying they were concerned about the whereabouts of $27,000 their members had collected for hurricane victims. The checks were written to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, but they were deposited instead into the Interfaith Council's account in Westminster. Both the Interfaith Council and their bank, Wells Fargo, acknowledged this week that the checks were mistakenly deposited.

During a news conference Wednesday night, Interfaith Council representatives displayed financial statements and detailed how donations were processed. When a check arrived, a copy was made and the date of the check was recorded. The donation was then given to Neil Nguyen, who made a second copy. The third step was to give the checks to the group's finance committee, which made another copy.

The group wanted "every penny to be accounted for," Tran said in Vietnamese to a group of mostly supporters and Vietnamese American media gathered Wednesday.

The Vietnamese American leaders who raised the funds, including the Venerable Thich Quang Thanh of the Santa Ana temple, planned to go to New York to personally deliver – at their own expense – the donations. On Wednesday, they said the trip would be Feb. 22.

Neil Nguyen said on Friday they welcome Quang Thanh to accompany them to New York, or if he prefers, they will mail him back the $27,000 so he can forward that money directly to the hurricane relief fund.

Meanwhile, Janet Nguyen said she understands the Vietnamese American leaders want to personally present the check as a symbolic gesture of the community's support for the Hurricane Sandy victims. She wrote that she could provide them with a large ceremonial check they could present on behalf of the community. But send the money now, she advised them.

Supervisor Nguyen said the Interfaith Council "has done a great job in the community" and now needs to show total transparency with the donation money. "This is a little bump. Let's resolve it."

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